We began this archive as a means of assisting our visitors in answering
many of their health and diet questions, and in encouraging them to take a pro-active part
in their own health. We believe the articles and information contained herein are
true, but are not presenting them as advice. We, personally, have found that a
whole food vegan
diet has helped our own health, and simply wish to share with others the things we have
found. Each of us must make our own decisions, for it's our own body. If you
have a health problem, see your own physician.

I could have picked any one of the many kinds of cancer which threaten your
life for the discussions that follow. One advantage of using prostate cancer for
my example is that the male-dominated medical business has been more willing to
accept the diet-cancer connection, and the short-comings of early detection and
treatment, for this exclusively male-disease, than they have been for the
predominantly female disease, breast cancer. Breast cancer is essentially the
same disease in women as prostate cancer is in men (those of you interested in
breast cancer should read the McDougall Program for Women book). As you read,
you can assume that a parallel story can also be told for breast cancer, as well
as, to some degree, for colon, kidney, and pancreatic cancer.

Prostate cancer is the leading kind of cancer and the second leading cause of
cancer death for men (after lung cancer). The typical American man has a one in
ten chance of being diagnosed with this disease, and a 3% chance of dying from
it. As many as 30% of men in their 30s and 40s have prostate cancer; and nearly
all men who reach the age of 100 show microscopic evidence of this disease.1 I
have taken two important steps to protect my own prostate:

First, I eat a diet that supports a healthy prostate and discourages cancer
growth (the subject of this newsletter) and;

Because there is a large library of information that appears (after a
superficial glance) to be completely contradictory, most people are thoroughly
confused about how to protect themselves from cancer. An analogy from a 19th
century medical mystery, solved by open-minded and clever detective work, will
help me explain to you how to sort through the information and reduce your risk
for most common cancers.

The Broad Street Pump

Cholera, an often-fatal infectious disease, spread throughout England
beginning in 1831. At that time, this disease was believed to be from "miasma in
the atmosphere." Miasma refers to foul or malodorous vapors (air) that cause
disease. Four serious epidemics, taking tens of thousands of lives in England,
occurred from then until 1854 when an anesthesiologist, John Snow, solved the
mystery.

Dr. Snow noticed that the distribution of cases of cholera was largely
confined to those people who obtained their water from one particular well,
called the Broad Street Pump. He also observed that of the 530 inmates of the
Poland Street workhouse, which was around the corner from the Broad Street Pump,
only five people had contracted cholera; and that no one from the workhouse
drank the pump water, for the building had its own well. Among the 70 workers in
a Broad Street brewery, where the men were given an allowance of free beer every
day, and consequently never drank water, there were no fatalities. These
findings resulted in the identification of the well as the source of cholera and
the removal of the handle from the well’s pump – the epidemic of cholera ended.

Almost 30 years passed before it was recognized that the cause of this
disease was a bacteria called Vibrio cholerae; however, this did not stop Dr.
Snow and the community surrounding the Broad Street Pump from taking action that
saved thousands of lives. The important message here is that even without
identifying the exact agent causing the disease, they saved themselves by
avoiding the well. Dr. Snow’s work marks the beginning of the science of
epidemiology.

Here is the analogy: the Western diet is the “Broad Street Pump” – And even
though scientists may not agree upon the exact component(s) of the food that is
(are) causing and promoting the cancer, all the evidence points to the food.
Just as you would not need to know that Vibrio cholerae was the exact killing
agent before you stopped drinking from the Broad Street Pump; you do not need to
know exactly which one of, or combination of, the food-derived culprits are
causing cancer before you avoid the Western diet (the well) and change to a
healthy plant-based diet.

The World Picture

The link between diet and prostate cancer is shown in many ways, but the
studies of populations of people worldwide are some of the most convincing.
Prostate cancer is rare in parts of the world where people eat a low-fat,
nearly-vegetarian diet. For example, there is 120 times less incidence of
prostate cancer in China compared to men in the United States.2 However, as
these populations of Chinese people change to the Western diet, their risk
increases proportionally3. This was demonstrated in one recent study in China
where they found a man’s chance for developing prostate cancer increased with
increasing intake of animal products and dietary fats, both saturated (animal)
and unsaturated (vegetable).4 Also, among foreign-born Asians, the risk of
prostate cancer increases with years of residence in the United States, as well
as with increasing saturated (animal) fat intake.5

Many Facets of the Rich Diet

As you read through the evidence you will see there are many components of
the Western diet including fat, animal protein, cholesterol, and chemicals that
are believed to initiate and promote cancer. Likewise, there are many healthy
components missing from this rich diet, such as powerful antioxidants,
phytochemicals, and dietary fiber, which protect us from cancer. People are
confused because there are so many different theories concerning the agent(s)
causing prostate cancer – yet if you take one giant step back you will see they
are all talking about the same diet – the rich Western diet. Let’s look at some
of the suspected culprits connecting our diet with cancer, and more
specifically, prostate cancer.

The Dairy Connection:

After nearly a century of cow’s milk being marketed as “Nature’s Most Perfect
Food,” you may be surprised to learn that dairy products have consistently been
associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer. A June 1999 article in the
journal Alternative Medicine Reviews reported that the relationship of prostate
cancer worldwide was more strongly related to the consumption of nonfat dairy
products than to any other food product.6 In one recent study, from the Harvard
School of Public Health, high consumption of dairy products was associated with
a 50% increase in the risk of prostate cancer.7 Even though the exact mechanism
for the relationship remains unknown, one possibility involves vitamin D. This
vitamin is known to protect us from prostate cancer. Consuming calcium (as with
dairy foods) lowers the circulating levels of this vitamin, eliminating its
protective qualities.

Another mechanism linking dairy products and prostate cancer is a very
powerful growth-stimulating hormone, known as insulin-like growth factor-1
(IGF-1). This hormone is increased in the body by the consumption of protein,
and especially animal protein. However, dairy products are the worst offenders
of all the foods we eat for raising this cancer-promoter.8 They can easily
increase the levels in our bodies by 10% from consuming amounts of dairy
products commonly recommended to keep our bones strong – and this fact comes
from studies paid for by the dairy industry.9,10 On the other hand, vegan men
have been found to have a 9% lower level of IGF-1 than men who follow a diet
with meat and dairy products.11

Dairy products may also influence prostate cancer development and growth by
their high content of environmental chemicals, by their saturated fat, and/or by
raising testosterone levels.12 But, the exact details are practically
unimportant for us to take sensible action and eliminate these foods from our
diet.

The Beef Connection:

A high intake of both red meat and dairy products has been associated with a
two-fold elevation in risk of metastatic prostate cancer, compared to low intake
of both products, but it is not clear whether the high fat content of these
foods or some other component is responsible.13,14 Beef fat (tallow) has been
shown to be especially prostate cancer-promoting, when compared to other kinds
of fat in animal studies.15 Beef may also influence cancer development by
increasing IGF-1 levels, its high environmental chemical content, by raising
testosterone levels, and/or by the chemicals produced through cooking. But, the
exact details are practically unimportant for us to take sensible action and
eliminate these foods from our diet.

The Fat Connection:

Some of the earliest scientific research discovered that high-fat diets
increase the risk of cancer, including prostate cancer. The mechanisms vary.
Fatty foods are high in calories and excess calories promote cancer, possibly
because they promote growth of all kinds of tissues, including the growth of
cancer cells. Vegetable fats suppress the immune system, thus encouraging cancer
growth. High-fat diets are high in chemical contaminants, and they raise hormone
levels – like increasing the production of the male hormone, testosterone.

Fats of all kinds, including vegetable fats, including “health-food” olive
and flaxseed oil, are easily oxidized into highly reactive molecules which
trigger a host of cancer-causing processes, including damaging our DNA.16
Fortunately, these reactions are stopped by antioxidants, such as vitamin E,
lycopene (found in red pigmented plants), and selenium, found in plant foods.

Thus, fats of all kinds may also influence cancer development by a variety of
mechanisms. But, the exact details are practically unimportant for us to take
sensible action and eliminate these foods from our diet.

The Testosterone Connection:

Testosterone is a sex hormone produced by the testicles. The prostate gland
requires this hormone to grow and function properly. Men who lose both testicles
early in life, and who don't have testosterone replacement, do not get prostate
cancer. Men with prostate cancer have higher than average levels of
testosterone. Furthermore, stimulation with these male hormones over a period of
time causes prostate cancer to grow, like throwing gasoline on a fire; and an
important corollary is that lowering hormone stimulation over time will prevent
prostate cancer and slow the growth of any cancer that has already
developed.17,18 These observations have led to the development of
widely-prescribed, anti-testosterone drugs for the prevention and treatment of
prostate cancer.

The safest and most effective way to keep male hormones under control is to
encourage men to eat a low-fat, high fiber diet.19-22 There are several
mechanism by which testosterone is reduced in the body with a healthy diet; for
example; plant substances known as isoflavones inhibit the production of
testosterone.23 But remember like John Snow and the Broad Street Pump, the exact
details of how raised testosterone activity, caused by the rich Western diet,
affects cancer growth are practically unimportant for us to take sensible action
and eliminate hormone-enhancing foods from our diet.

The Cooking Connection:

Cooking animal muscles, including beef, poultry, and fish at high
temperatures by broiling, roasting or frying, causes the production of very
potent cancer-causing substances, such as heterocyclic amines. These
heat-created chemicals can damage the genetic materials inside the cells (DNA),
causing mutations and cancer -- and have been tied to the development of
prostate cancer.24,25 Importantly, eating vegetables, notably broccoli, will
increase the metabolism of these cancer-causing chemicals and remove them from
the body so they are no longer hazardous.26 But, the exact details of how these
cooking-derived chemicals promote cancer are practically unimportant for us to
take sensible action and eliminate these foods from our diet.

The Chemical Connection:

A number of chemicals found in the environment influence the development of
prostate cancer. For example, chemicals, known as organochlorines, mimic the
role of hormones binding to hormone receptors in our sex organs, including the
prostate, and promote cancer growth. Organochlorines, first produced in the
early 1900's, have been made on a large scale since the Second World War, when
they were used as poison gases. They include DDT, PCBs, dioxin, Agent Orange and
thousands of lesser-known chemical products and byproducts. Each year in North
America, 13 million tons of chlorine are produced and used to chlorinate
drinking water and are employed in the production of plastics and the bleaching
of paper. These environmental substances are also called xenoestrogens and
endocrine disrupters.

Over the past 20 years, the documented increase in the disorders of male
sexual organs, such as hypospadias (the urethra ends at the base of the penis),
cryptorchidism (undescended testis), poor semen quality, testicular cancer and
micropenis, has led to the suspicion that environmental chemicals are
detrimental to normal male genital development. Increasing rates of prostate
cancer may also result in part from these and other man-made chemicals.27

The higher on the food chain, the higher the concentration of these
environmental chemicals in the ecosystem. The concentrating process, known as
biomagnification, occurs because these chemicals are attracted to fat and stored
in body fat. So, when the cattle eat the chemicals on the grass, the chemicals
become concentrated in the cattle’s fatty tissues. After we eat the beef fat
most of these chemicals are stored in our fat. Estimates are 80% to 90% of the
chemicals in our bodies come from eating meat, poultry, fish, and dairy
products. Understand that this accumulation is life-long, and therefore, what
you do as a child may come to haunt you as an adult with cancer and birth
defects for your children. Fortunately, eating a clean diet allows these
chemicals to leave the body. Thus, the exact details on which chemicals and how
they act are practically unimportant for us to take sensible action and
eliminate foods high on the food chain (meats and dairy products) from our diet
and replace them with foods low on the food chain (plant foods).

Plant-Food Protection Connection:

Vegetables contain dozens of discovered, and hundreds of to-be-discovered,
substances, called phytochemicals, which play a protective role on our tissues
with numerous anticancer actions.16 In one important study, the strongest
protector from prostate cancer was related to the consumption of tomatoes -- the
lycopene in tomatoes acted as an antioxidant, preventing prostate cancer.6

One well studied group of phytochemicals, known as isoflavones, has been
found to inhibit the growth of prostate cancer in mice.29 After feeding the mice
soy products, examination of the animal’s prostate tissues under a microscope
showed reduced cell replication, increased cell death, and a decrease in the
number of blood vessels that go to the tumor – all indicating a reduction in
already established cancer. The low rate of prostate cancer in Japanese men is
often attributed to the large quantities of these natural plant-derived
chemicals in their diet of rice, vegetables, and soy products. Obviously, the
exact details on how these phytochemicals act to keep our tissues healthy and
cancer-free are practically unimportant for us to take sensible action by
flooding our cells with this life-giving assistance.

What if you have cancer already? Can diet help?

Because of the limited efficacy of present day treatments for prostate
cancer, the medical community has encouraged doctors to look at nontraditional
therapies, such as diet. Diet therapy has reached a level of acceptance where
the respected Journal of Urology prints, “...dietary fat intake modification may
be a promising intervention to prevent prostate cancer progression”31 This
statement is based in part on the fact that a study of 384 men diagnosed with
prostate cancer found those who consumed the least amount of animal fat had
one-third the risk of dying compared to those who ate the highest fat intake.32

The benefits of healthier living for men who already have prostate cancer can
be seen in a simple laboratory experiment. Cancer cells placed in a dish, then
covered with the serum (blood) of overweight men, grew more slowly after these
men had followed a low-fat, high-fiber diet and exercised for only 11 days;
compared to incubation of these same cancer cells in serum taken before the
intervention.33 Diet and exercise cause changes in the blood and body that
inhibit cancer cell growth.

PSA (prostatic specific antigen) is a sugar-protein often elevated in the
blood of men with prostate cancer and the level of this hormone reflects the
rate of growth of the cancer. A rising level indicates a losing battle. In one
study, men with elevated PSA levels, but without cancer, who changed to a
low-fat diet, high in soy products, showed the average serum PSA level reduction
from 6.9 ng/ml to 5.6 ng/ml after 3 months.34 In another study of men with
prostate cancer, the rate of rise of PSA decreased in 8 of 10 men, while 3 had a
decrease in absolute PSA level, when following a low-fat, plant-based diet. More
evidence that this intervention slows the rate of tumor progression.35

A study of men with prostate cancer found that after an average duration of
34 days on a low-fat diet (20% fat), supplemented with an ounce of flaxseeds
daily, there was a decrease in total serum cholesterol, total testosterone, and
free androgen index (a measurement of male hormone activity).36 PSA levels
decreased slightly, and most importantly, the actual activity of cancer cell
growth, as seen under the microscope, decreased in those on the diet. The longer
the men with cancer were on the diet, the healthier the growth pattern of the
cancer cells appeared. Finally, ongoing research by Dr. Dean Ornish, using a
low-fat, vegan diet, has already produced encouraging results for men with
prostate cancer.37,38

Logically, it would make about as much sense for cholera victims, after
learning the truth, to continue drinking from the polluted Broad Street Pump, as
it would to continue feeding cheeseburgers to a person with cancer.

Broad Street Food Pump = the Western Diet

After reading this article, you now are able to step back and look at the
evidence from an expansive perspective and see that there is consistency in what
once seemed to be disjointed messages. Choosing the right foods is 100% within
your control, costs nothing (actually reduces your food bill by 40%), causes
painless permanent weight loss, and results in a dramatic reduction in other
diseases, like heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and arthritis. Today seems like
a good day to make some healthy changes. What do you think?

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